Bucky can’t help but glare across the room where one part of their trio is laughing away, a group of people standing around him, all of them soaking it in as they touch what is his. Theirs.
“I’m not jealous,” he replies, taking a sip of his drink.
“Okay,” Steve says, coming to lean against him, sipping at his whiskey. “You’re not jealous. You just always look at people like you’re going to murder them.”
Bucky turns to tell the little punk, and no matter how tall and muscled Steve is he’ll always be a little punk, how wrong he is, because Bucky has been told that he does kind of look like that these days, only to freeze when he sees the strain around his boyfriend's eyes.
“You’re jealous!” he exclaims, some of his tension falling away.
“I’m not jealous,” Steve answers, looking over at him. “You’re the one who’s jealous.”
Bucky raises an eyebrow, taking another sip of his drink. Steve holds out for a few seconds, before rolling his eyes.
“Okay,” he starts, “maybe I’m a little jealous! It’s just … why do they all have to touch him all the time!”
Bucky can’t help but nod, turning back to glare over at the group around Tony. He hasn’t missed the touches, or the way Tony doesn’t push them away. He leans into Steve a bit more, the warmth calming something in him a little bit.
“I could take the three men, whilst you take the two women,” he mutters, eyes zeroing in on the hand that one of the men has on Tony’s lower back.
“You two are complete idiots.”
Neither Bucky or Steve turn as Natasha joins them.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” Steve says, taking another sip of his drink, the blush spreading across his cheeks belying the lie.
“Tony does this, so that you two knuckleheads don’t have to, because you are both awful at it, and like it or not, publicity is important in our job. Someone has to schmooze these idiots.”
“Sure,” Bucky mutters.
“No,” she replies, moving in front of them, blocking their view of Tony. “If you can’t see how much he hates this, then you don’t deserve to be the ones that he goes home with.”
“What?” Steve asks, moving slightly to try and see Tony.
“Listen to me,” she continues, grabbing both of their shirts. “He’s so good that I didn’t even see past the masks when I was assigned to him. If you honestly don’t think that he’s hating this, then I will make sure that you don’t get to keep him.”
She glares at them both, before letting them go, giving them one last look before walking away.
It takes them both a few seconds to straighten themselves out, Bucky not doubting for one second that Natasha will follow through with her threat. When he looks over at the group again, Tony’s looking back at them, Bucky seeing the difference between the smile he had been giving the group around him, and the one he sends them.
“Rescue mission?” Steve asks, throwing the rest of his drink back.
“Let’s go get our man,” he replies.
Neither of them see Natasha’s satisfied smirk as she sees them stalking over to Tony.
